


Pyrrhic Victories

by collapsethelightintoearth



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Drabble, Gen, Introspection, Survival, Tarsus IV, Trauma, Wordcount: 100-500
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-03-20 19:30:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3662256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/collapsethelightintoearth/pseuds/collapsethelightintoearth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s funny, Jim thinks, how everyone assumes his rejection of no-win scenarios was fostered by the sacrifice his father made.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pyrrhic Victories

It’s funny, Jim thinks, how everyone assumes his rejection of no-win scenarios was fostered by the sacrifice his father made. When that obnoxious _as fuck_ Vulcan brought it up - the sacrifice of a ghost that Jim has never and will never know - in front of the entire student body, Jim dug his fingernails deep into the palms of his hands. Pain has been familiar, and therefore grounding, to him for many years. It had hurt enough for him to respond in a way that befit his reputation, hotheaded and recalcitrant, and enough for him to refrain from flinching, refrain from screaming.

Jim is many things, but truthful is rarely one of them. If he were ever to speak honestly about no-win scenarios, he imagines it would go like this:

He doesn't believe in no-win scenarios because he _can't_ , because he’s spent years convincing himself that, in the worst of ways, he won. He returned to Earth as a whole person. _He survived_. Admitting to the possibility of of defeat would be like tearing down the foundation he’s built himself back up on. It would mean acknowledging that there are parts of him that never came back from Tarsus IV. 

 


End file.
